Protests are on the rise in reaction to a recent initiative to hike up the fare and daily deposit amount of the CNG-run auto-rickshaws running inside the Dhaka and Chattogram metropolitan cities.
A sub-committee, formed by the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, on May 30 gave a proposal to double the fare of CNG auto rickshaws.
Passenger rights activists said that though the CNG auto drivers do not follow the meters at all, this new attempt to increase the fare and daily deposits will put burden of extra fares on the passengers.
As per the sub-committee proposal, a meeting document showed, the fare for auto-rickshaws was proposed at Tk 80 doubling from Tk 40 for the first two kilometres and Tk 25 from Tk 12 for each additional kilometre.
The waiting charge for CNG-run auto-rickshaws has been proposed to Tk 4 from Tk 2 per minute and daily deposit proposed at Tk 1,200 from previous Tk 900.
According to the BRTA, on December 6, 2022, a 10-member sub-committee was formed comprising representatives from the BRTA and CNG auto owners鈥� and driver鈥檚 associations to adjust the fares and daily deposits following price hikes of the compressed natural gas.
According to the BRTA, 13,000 CNG auto-rickshaws were permitted in Dhaka and Chittagong metropolitan cities each.
An additional 2,696 auto-rickshaws obtained permission to run in Dhaka following the government鈥檚 decision to replace the Mishuks, 鈥峚 type of three-wheeler with four-stroke engine with a smaller and flimsy body.
The government raised the distance-wise fares and readjusted the meters on September 10, 2015 for the last time, and fixed the daily deposit at Tk 900 for each auto-rickshaw.
Since then, the auto-rickshaw drivers were seldom seen charging using the meters.
The drivers alleged that the owners exacted from them much more than the amount the government had fixed as daily deposits.
The Passenger Welfare Association of Bangladesh in a statement on Sunday said that according to its survey conducted in 2016, around 98 per cent CNG autos did not follow meters in Dhaka and Chattogram cities, 87 per cent CNG auto drivers did not go to the destinations where the passengers wanted to go and the CNG auto owners charged Tk 1,200 to Tk 1,800 as daily deposits.
Association secretary general Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury alleged in the statement that the attempt to increase the fares and deposits was an act of collusion between some CNG auto owners and a section of BRTA officials.
He urged the government not to hike fares and daily deposits and ensure good services for passengers.
One of the sub-committee members, Dhaka District CNG, Auto-Rickshaw and Mishuk Driver and Worker鈥檚 Union general secretary Shakhawat Hossain Dulal said that they did not agree with the proposal of increasing daily deposit to Tk 1,200.
He alleged that in Dhaka city around 40,000 and in Chattogram city around 15,000 illegal CNG autos were running.
BRTA chairman Nur Mohammad Mazumder told 抖阴精品 on Sunday that the sub-committee did not submit their report to him yet.
鈥榃e will consider it,鈥� he added.
The price of gas increased once in both 2023 and 2022.